Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A30589
|
Jerusalems glory breaking forth into the world being a Scripture-discovery of the New-Testament Church in the latter dayes, immediately before the Second Coming of Christ.
|
Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.; Adderley, William.
|
1684
(1684)
|
Wing B6092; ESTC R25958
|
49,943
|
136
|
Christ but then there shall be a glorious Marriage of the Vniversal Church to Jesus Christ as in a Body and then the Lord shall appear in his Glory There shall be a more glorious presence of God and Jesus Christ with the Saints than yet we have had The eighth thing That there shall be when Jerusalem shall be set up as the praise of the whole Earth Powerful Godliness and the Saints shall be honoured in the World As they have been trampled under feet and disgraced and vilified in the World So when this time shall come they shall be honoured in the World and their Enemies shall stoop to them We have a great many Scriptures that tend that way In the 49. of Isa v. 23. You may Read there how the Enemies shall come and stoop to the Saints that did despise them before And so in the 3 d. Revel vers 9. Those that hated them shall come and bow unto them I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews and are not but do lie Behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee They will not own them now but God hath his time to make wicked and ungodly men to come and acknowledge that these are the beloved ones of the Lord verily these are the Servants yea they are the Children of the most high God And more specially those Scriptures that you have in the Prophecy of Isaiah Chap. 60.6 and so vers 13. V. 6. The Multitude of Camels shall cover thee the Dromedaries of Midian and Ephah all they from Sheba shall come they shall bring Gold and Incense and they shall shew forth the praise of the Lord. All the Flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee the Rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee And vers 13. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee the Fir-Tree the Pine-Tree and the Box together to beautifie the place of my Sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious Mark The Church it is the place of Gods feet It 's under God but the Lord hath his time to make it glorious before all the world For if you speak of the Spiritual glory of it so it is so glorious now Gods Church it was always glorious spiritually before God and was the most glorious Object that God had to view in the World But here 's a promise that he will make it glorious before others Vers 14. The Sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the Soles of thy feet and they shall call thee The City of the Lord the Zion of the Holy one of Israel It may be they called them before nick names they call'd you Hypocrites and you were they that made such a show of Religion but you were a company of proud People that would seem to be holier than other men But now they shall call thee the City of the Lord and the Zion of the Holy one of Israel And vers 15. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated so that no man went through thee I will make thee an Eternal Excellency a Joy of many Generations This is not spoken only unto Godly men personally and particularly but to Godly men as in a Society as in the Church they shall be made an Eternal Excellency and a Joy of many Generations And again for the 9. of Zech. v. 16. And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the Flock of his People For they shall be as the stones of a Crown lifted up as an Ensign upon his Land They shall be as the stones of a Crown lifted up This shews the Excellent glory that shall be put upon the Saints Now they are as stones in the dirt but then they shall be as the stones in a Crown that 's lifted up And so in the 12. Chap. vers 5. And the Governours of Judah shall say in their hearts The Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God It is not shall be that 's in another Character and they in that Jerusalem they shall be honoured by the Governours of Judah And the Governours of Judah shall say well our strength it is in the Inhabitants of this Jerusalem In the Lord of hosts their God We accounted them before but as Schismaticks and precise Fools but we see that God is with them And the Governours of Judah shall say Our strength is in the Inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord of Hosts their God This will be a blessed time when Governours shall acknowledge the Saints to be those that the Lord doth own and they shall acknowledge the very strength of a Nation to consist in the Saints They shall see that the Saints have a propriety in God beyond others there is such a time a coming however they be despised now In the third of Mal. v. 3. The Lord makes a promise that he will gather up his Jewels and there shall be a time when there shall be a known difference between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not The Saints of God are compared to Jewels that lie in the dirt and Swine trampling upon the Jewels but there is a time that the Lord will gather up these Jewels and at that day there shall be known a difference between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not this time is coming and this is the time that my Text speaks of that we should give the Lord no rest untill he make Jerusalem thus Certainly when this is it will be the praise of the whole Earth The Ninth thing is when Jerusalem shall be made the praise of the whole Earth it will be made a quiet Habitation there shall be a blessed Union of the Church then shall divisions be taken away Now that that hinders the beauty of the Church and of the Saints and doth exceedingly darken their beauty it is their Divisions were it that the Saints of God could live in union one with another and so grow up in holiness they would be a great deal more beautiful in their conversations My beloved is one and the Daughters saw her and blessed her But the divisions and contentions that there are among the Churches do exceedingly take away the beauty and glory of them and therefore they are not now the praise of the places where they live but many times they make themselves the scorn of the places but there is a time a coming that this Spirit of division shall be taken away from among the Saints you will say that will be a blessed time indeed I 'le give you two or three Scriptures that are very observable for this In the 11. of Isa vers 13. There 's the first promise of Vnion that there shall be among the Churches The envy also of Ephraim shall depart and the adversaries of
yet fulfill'd since the time of this Prophecy and therefore is yet to come And so in the 66 of Isa For this Prophet Isaiah is the most Evangelical Prophet that speaks more of the Glory of the times of the Gospel than any Prophet vers 7 8. Before she travelled she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered of a Man-Child Who hath heard such a thing who hath seen such things shall the Earth be made to bring forth in one day or shall a Nation be born at once for as soon as Zion travelled she brought forth her Children Here 's the Number and the Suddenness of it together It shall be done even in a sudden way That Promise shall be then fulfilled to Christ wherein the Lord hath said to him That he would give unto him the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession Now though that Promise be made to Jesus Christ yet the Lord is a great while afore he doth make it good to the uttermost that he did intend Well then may we be content to wait for the fulfilling of Promises when as the Promise that God hath made to his own Son he is fain to wait for the fulfilling of it And that 's the fourth thing A great confluence of People shall come into Jerusalem it shall be a great City And then in the fifth place Where there are multitudes coming in will there not be a great deal of dross and filthiness It is usual that a Church while it hath but a few it may continue in some purity but let a Church have many to joyn with it have but any considerable Number it usually doth quickly corrupt There grows a great deal of soyl and filthiness where there are a Number joyned together But now this shall be the Glory of this Jerusalem that though it shall be very great there shall be a mighty Confluence of People yet it shall abide in its purity there shall be a great deal of Purity in the Ordinances that they shall have and in the Professors that shall joyn together And for that we have that Prophecy in the 44. of Ezek. verse 9. which is a place by all Divines understood of the state of the Gospel Thus saith the Lord God No Stranger uncircumcised in Heart nor uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my Sanctuary Not so much as uncircumcised in Heart ☞ Mark here it seems in the times of the Gospel a meer outward Profession is not enough for one to profess himself to worship God and the like but if he be uncircumcised in Heart he must not enter You will say How can we know the Heart It 's true we cannot know the Heart unless it be some way discovered but if there be any thing to discover wickedness in the Heart such a one in the times of the Gospel must not be received into the Church of God ☞ And there will be a time of greater discerning than now there is and therefore you find it in the 21. of Revel where St. John doth Prophesie of the New Jerusalem at the last verse And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abominations or maketh a lie But they which are written in the Lambs Book of Life In no wise no no there 's two negatives there though we in our English Tongue make two Negatives to be an Affirmative yet the Holy Ghost doth not there shall not not no in no wise shall there enter any unclean thing into it Now it is apparent by divers things in this Chapter that this must be meant not of the Glory that there shall be in the highest Heavens but of some Glory of the Church here For it is said in the 24. verse That the Nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory and honour into it Now the Kings of the Earth do not bring their Glory and Honour to the highest Heavens there 's no difference between a King and the poorest and meanest they must there be stript of all their Robes and the Kings of the Earth shall bring no more Glory to that than meaner men Therefore it must be understood of an Estate here where the Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory to it 'T is very hard to conceive that it is impossible for any Hypocrite to get in yet the Scripture speaks so as it shall not be ordinary for an Hypocrite to get in Indeed in the state of the Church as hitherto it hath been or as yet it is there are abundance of Hypocrites and therefore that 's no Argument against labouring to cleanse the Church from prophane ones to say Why the best of all have those that are Hypocrites Though it 's true yet when men do some way or other discover themselves to be Hypocrites they must not be received into the Church But now here 's the Question Whether there should be any but those that should give such Testimony of Godliness as may appear to the judgments of men to be so And if once they appear to be otherwise they should be cast out of the Church This must be a certain Rule those that ought to be cast out if they were in they must not be received in if now they were to be received If no Prophane one but must be cast out if they were got into the Church when they appear to be so why then certainly they are not to be taken in appearing to be prophane We are now to labour what we can to come as near to that glorious Jerusalem as we are able We are now to labour to promote the condition that the Church shall be in then but we cannot expect for to have it yet till the Lord doth put another Spirit upon men than hitherto Therefore when God intends to make Jerusalem as the Praise of the whole Earth there will be certainly another Spirit upon men than yet there is for the present Therefore in the sixth place the Gifts and Graces of the Saints shall be exceedingly raised and enlarged Those that are now poor and low and mean shall be then very much enlarged and raised For that take these Scriptures Isa 65.20 There shall be no more thence an Infant of dayes nor an Old Man that hath not filled his dayes For the Child shall die an hundred years old but the Sinner being an hundred Years old shall be accursed This apparently speaks of an Estate in this World But now the meaning is this That there shall thence be no more an Infant of Dayes that is those that are weak shall be raised to a very high pitch of Ability and Understanding even Young ones shall be raised very high to have the understanding of men in them and so proportionably the gifts of the Saints shall be raised in that time And in the 12. Zech. 8 verse there it 's